Black Women Civil War Activists
The Voice of Black Women Civil War Activists
When Jane Welcome wrote to President Lincoln on November 21, 1864 both of her sons were serving in the United States Colored Troops. She had received no word or money from her youngest son, Israel, who was serving with the 55th Mass, and had already been wounded twice in the war. Jane’s son-in-law, Israel Mullen (Mullin), died only 2 months prior to the date of her letter at L’Ouverture Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, USA and leaving her daughter, Mary a widow with seven children.
Spring 2022, I came across a blog post that focused on Black Women’s voices in the Civil War…. Just about 200-years-ago, in Autumn of 1864, a widowed, destitute, and fiercely determined Black mother wrote a letter to the President. Her name was Jane Welcome, and she was not at all afraid to give the President of the United States a piece of her “blossoming” mind. Jane’s voice stood out to me, and her name did too…So when we uncovered the stone of a Martin Welcome at Lincoln Cemetery, I immediately suspected, it was his Mama, wrote President Lincoln to send her boy home.
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Jane Welcome’s Letter to the President: my head is blossaming for the grave….
Mr abarham lincon,
Carlisles [Pa.] nov 21 1864
I wont to knw sir if you please wether I can have my son relest from the arme he is all the subport I have now his father is Dead and his brother that wase all the help that I had he has bean wonded twise he has not had nothing to send me yet now I am old and my head is blossaming for the grave and if you dou I hope the lord will bless you and me if you please answer as soon as you can if you please tha say that you will simpethise withe the poor thear wase awhite jentel man told me to write to you Mrs jane Welcom if you please answer it to he be long to the eight rigmat co a u st colard troops mart welcom is his name he is a sarjent
Jane Welcome
[Jane Welcome] to abarham lincon, 21 Nov. 1864, W-934 1864, Letters Received, series 360, Colored Troops Division, Adjutant General’s Office, Record Group 94, National Archives. In the same file is a draft reply from the Bureau of Colored Troops informing Welcome that “the interests of the service will not permit that your request be granted.” (C. W. Foster to Mrs. Jane Welcome, 2 Dec. 1864.)
Jane Welcome’s Enduring Legacy
I am happy to report that several of Jane’s children survived the Civil War. Jane Welcome’s letter to President Abraham Lincoln has given voice to the hidden histories of Black families during the Civil War. Though they have long blossomed for the grave, Black women born in the antebellum period refuse to remain silent. Jane’s voice is preserved in her own words and the intimacy draws us closer to the lived experience of ALL AMERICANS who fought to create an equal and just democratic union. Jane Welcome’s Letter to the President is one of the many enduring voices of Black Women Civil War activists…it is time for us to seek them out
Martin “Mark” Welcome
A Civil War veteran, he was federally drafted at the stated age of twenty-eight and mustered into federal service either at Carlisle or Chambersburg (both reported) August 14, 1863, as a private with Co. A, 8th U.S. Colored Troops. He then went on a roller coaster ride of promotions and demotions, first to corporal October 5, 1863, to sergeant November 11, reduced to private December 4 following, then reappointed sergeant December 15, reduced to corporal February 3, 1864, and back to sergeant May 1, 1864. Wounded at the battle of Olustee, Florida, on February 20, 1864, he was hospitalized at Beaufort, South Carolina, and returned to duty by June 4, 1864. The army withheld what appears to be $7.75 for transportation and an additional $14.59 for extra clothing, more than a month’s pay even for a sergeant. He was again wounded, this time at the battle of Chapins Farm, Virginia, on September 29, 1864, and admitted to Balfour U.S. Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia. (The nature of the two wounds is not described in his compiled military service records.) Reduced to Private April 1, 1865, he was honorably discharged November 10, 1865, at Brownsville, Texas.https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/237254030/martin-mark-welcome
When Martin Mark Welcome was born in 1835 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, his father, Benjamin, was 38 and his mother, Jane, was 31. He had one son with Mary (Unknown) Welcome. He then married Catherine A Hawkins on September 18, 1890, in Dauphin, Pennsylvania. He died on February 20, 1893, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at the age of 58, and was buried in Penbrook, Pennsylvania.
The gravestone of Civil War Veteran, Martin Welcome (1835–1893), Sergeant of Company A of the 8th United States Colored Infantry, after it was found by SOAL Volunteers in Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery.
Additional Resources:
8th USCT (no date). Available at: https://battleofolustee.org/8_us_his.htm (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
Abraham “Abe” Anderson (1835-1897) – Find a Grave… (no date). Available at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239076058/abraham-anderson (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
‘African American History in Carlisle | Carlisle Parks’ (no date). Available at: https://blogs.dickinson.edu/carlisleparks/african-american-history-in-carlisle/ (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
Eighth United States Colored Troops (no date). Available at: https://battleofolustee.org/8th_usct.html (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
Harrisburg Telegraph (1887) ‘Bondsmen and Signers for the Liqour License of Frisby C. Battis 5 Feb 1887 Harrisburg Telegraph’, 4 February, p. 4. Available at: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112780550/bondsmen-and-signers-for-the-liqour/ (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
How Black soldiers helped end the U.S. Civil War (no date) New York Daily News. Available at: https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-civil-war-black-soldiers-book-20210212-p5256rzg5zeghk5bmvaunkskca-story.html (Accessed: 8 November 2022).
Jane Welcome (1864) ‘Jane Welcome to Abarham Lincoln: Mother of a Pennsylvania Black Soldier to the President: November 21, 1864’. Available at: http://freedmen.umd.edu/JWelcome.html (Accessed: 7 November 2022).
McPherson, J.M., Gary, D.J. and Woodlin, W. (2005) ‘“We Were to Give up Our Guns, Who Belonged to the Band”: Diary of William Woodlin, 8th U.S. Colored Troops, Company G (GLC 6599)’, OAH Magazine of History, 19(4), pp. 41–47. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161962 (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
Post, E.G. (2021) ‘“They Will Charge to the Cannon’s Mouth:” A Story of the 3rd United States Colored Cavalry’, Emerging Civil War, 6 December. Available at: https://emergingcivilwar.com/2021/12/06/they-will-charge-to-the-cannons-mouth-a-story-of-the-3rd-united-states-colored-cavalry/ (Accessed: 26 April 2022).
The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship by Deborah Willis Martin.
Union – U.S. Colored Troops Infantry (Part 1) (no date). Available at: http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/uncolinf1.htm#8 (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
William P. Woodlin, 8th USCT (no date). Available at: https://battleofolustee.org/letters/w_woodlin_8th_usct.htm (Accessed: 9 November 2022).
Jane has many descendants who are buried in Lincoln Cemetery…What is your connection?
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